According to an article in the Daily Iowan, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors is considering hiring a firm to conduct a public opinion survey for the proposed Justice Center.
The estimated cost of the survey is $18,000 and would take roughly six weeks to complete.
$18,000 huh?
Apparently there are no funds set aside for this, but Supervisors may take budget money away from the jail alternatives budget or the sheriff's account.
Voters might ask, "Doesn’t that mean that something in the budget will have to be scrapped then in order to fund the survey?" One has to wonder if either of those two - the jail alternatives or the Sheriff’s accounts - were projected to have an $18,000 surplus at year’s end (fiscal year)? Is there that much discretionary spending or are we talking putting off equipment buys and/or delaying service needs?
And here's a thought: Shouldn’t county supervisors already know what the sentiment of the public is on this issue? Isn’t it a Supervisor’s job to know? As often as this issue and related subject matter has been in the news and for all the feedback those stories have generated, supervisors should already have a good feel for what the folks out there are thinking. The people of Johnson County know the current jail is overcrowded. People know far too much taxpayer money is being spent on transporting prisoners to other facilities outside the county. People know the courthouse is no longer adequate.
Are supervisors so out of touch with the public, that they feel they have to hire an outside firm to conduct a survey? To borrow a saying from a redneck, "That dog don't hunt." Think about that, Supervisors pretend to know they're on top of the issues, Chairman Rod Sullivan for example will even chide you when challenged - and so they need a survey to do their jobs for them? Aren't they already supposed to know how the public feels about the proposed justice center issue? The answer is yes, they are.
So, either the supervisors are hiring a survey outfit because they’re really that out of touch with the public...... Or they're abusing $18,000 in taxpayer money so they can craft arguments based on survey responses like they did with the conservation bond survey, to find a way to *generate support* and get the issue placed on the November 2009 ballot. Either one of those is a bad thing.
Tell Rod Sullivan to scrap the survey, if he and the other supervisors want to have one done that bad, they can fund it with their own salaries. $18,000 divided by five supervisors comes out to $3,600 each. Have a nice day.
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